Like all good Catholics we only eat fish on Good Friday. When I was a kid I hated fish, I even hated fishing. The way it worked at my house was we would get up early and then take forever to get out of the house. By the time we got to the water it was burning hot and the fish were full. We rarely caught anything but when we did we would gut it, take it home and immediately put it in the freezer. There it would stay until we were poor enough to chizzle the ice off and choke it down. The only time we had fish other than that were Tyson fish sticks – I am not sure what those are really made of but I think it’s old chicken.

I didn’t learn to LOVE fish until I went on my mission. In Seattle there was fresh fish everywhere and it was amazing.

I knew that if I was going to be a good father I would have to teach my son how to bring home the bacon…err fish. On Friday, while the girls went Easter shopping, Ashton and I got all ready, got in the car, and drove to Albertson’s. I had my list ready: Jenn wanted Salmon, I was in the mood for a Halibut, Ashton was going to have corn dogs. When we got to the fish counter there were fresh rainbow trout right at eye level. Ashton wanted one soooo bad. So being the constant pushover I got it for him just because I thought it would be fun.

The second he got his fish all he wanted was to go home. He was so excited that while I was checking out he took his fish and headed for the car. Luckily somebody from the ward was out there and stopped him at the curb until I could catch up.

You have never seen a kid so excited about something as he was about the fish. He was very careful when he put it in the car and then when we got home he ran right inside and unwrapped it.

There is a much longer video that I like and Jenn insists is only interesting to us. We are fighting about it right now and if there is more than one video in the post it will be because I am sneaky.

(Side note – Ashton was so excited about his fish that he didn’t even run straight to his room to put on pajamas. If Ashton is home, he HAS to have pajamas on. As you see below, he changed as his fish was being prepared.)

I graduated from BYU with a Sociology degree. I loved it! Every Sociology class I had was just completely interesting and fun. A couple years later I thought,”Hmmm, maybe I’ll just go take some accounting classes…JUST FOR FUN.” So I went to UVSC for Accounting for a couple of semesters…it was NOT fun.

So Josh, Kris and I ran the Long Beach Marathon six months ago. I loved it! I had so much fun and I wasn’t even sore after. Then when I found out there was a Salt Lake City Marathon, I thought,”Hey, I will do it JUST FOR FUN (and hopefully do it faster than Long Beach).” Well, this time, it was NOT fun.

I need help redefining what FUN is…More school and more marathons???? What was I thinking?

Anyhoo, I did run SLC Marathon a couple days ago. I didn’t prepare for it as well as I should have, but I wasn’t too worried, it was JUST FOR FUN, right? I was having lots of fun for the first 13 miles. I was kicking bum, if I do say so myself, 8 minute miles the whole way! Then I decided I HAD to take a quick break to put a band-aid on my foot and take care of business so I wouldn’t finish the race looking like THIS:

Well, that little break KILLED me, it was all over after that. My legs were just completely cramped up!!! By mile 18 I was questioning if I could finish at all. I was looking for spectators who might be kind enough to help me cheat. At 19 1/2 miles, I came upon the sweetest sight ever…..

Cari made these amazingly cute posters. I cannot even express how happy I was to see these guys!!! I got hugs from everyone….

Begged Josh to take me home…….

He refused, gave me a pep talk, then my little fam ran with me for a while….

I wish I could say that this little reunion gave me enough energy to sprint 7 more miles to the finish….Noooope. But I made it, eventually. Josh, Cari, Ashton and Emmy were waiting at the Gateway. When I ran by, Ashton came out and ran the last 50 yards with me. He was so cute!!!! Everyone was cheering for him and yelling “You’re gonna beat your mom!” Yeah, no kidding. It was hard to keep up with him.

So I finished the marathon, I DIDN’T have poop all over me, AND I finished a tiny bit faster than my first marathon(4 hr 30 min instead of 4 hr 45 min), so I guess I have to say it was a success. In the picture below, if it looks like I was crying and then trying to smile…it’s because I WAS crying and trying to smile. Josh and Cari took such good care of me and spoiled me. I was just a little bit exhausted and WAY overwhelmed by their thoughtfulness and support.

(This blog post is grossly inadequate in describing what I have been feeling today. I WISH I had a tiny portion of Jessi’s writing skills. Oh well, here goes…)

The most harrowing, horrible day of my life happened exactly one year ago today. It was the beginning of the worst ten days of my life, also. If you are new to my blog, you can go here for a better explanation. But one year ago my little sister Jessi had a pulmonary embolism and an infection throughout her body after giving birth to her 4th baby. She was in the ICU in serious condition and the doctors didn’t know what the infection was or how to fight it. I took Jessi’s brand new baby home with me and cried and prayed for days and days that this sweet baby boy would be able to have his mommy HERE, in this life.

After much deliberation, the doctors in the ICU allowed Jess to hold and feed Spencer for a few minutes. She was so weak and could barely breathe but she didn’t care. She just wanted to be near her baby. It was one of the sweetest, most heart-breaking scenes ever.

So after a very torturous ten days of not knowing whether Jess was going to make it, almost running out of antibiotics to use against the infection, a miracle occurred and Jess was released from the hospital.

I still cannot express in words how infinitely thankful I am to my Heavenly Father for allowing Jess to live. She is always the life of any gathering, always telling jokes and making witty comments or doing some kind of crazy dance or movement. Even with four little boys, Jess can party all night long. If there is any fun happening or TO BE HAD, Jess is all about it. She is hilarious and so smart with definite opinions and passions, yet she is sweet and gentle and concerned about others’ feelings. We kept teasing her at Lake Powell when she was behind the boat, ready to wakeboard. Instead of yelling “Hit It!” or some DEMAND for the boat to go, she would say, “Uh, if you get a minute and it’s not too much trouble, perhaps, maybe you could start the boat up for me. BUT ONLY if it’s a good time for you.” That’s Jess. I don’t know what our family would be like today, one year later, if things had been different. I’ve thought about it often but not for too long. I quickly interrupt my thoughts with a prayer of thanks, as tears well up, that things turned out the way they did.

Ashton wanted Emmy to get something out of the fridge and I told him she was too little to do it by herself. With so much concern in his voice, he said “Ooh Emmy, I’m so worried about you.”

As I was leaving to go out with Josh, Ashton gave me a hug and said,”See ya, Little Mom.”

We walked to the park the other day. Ashton ran ahead and got there way before Emmy and I did. By the time we got to the park, he was running home trying to find us. I finally found him back at home and as we walked BACK to the park he told me his story of being lost. He said, “I was yelling ‘Mom, Mom! Where are you, Cute Mommy’?”

You may have already seen this on Josh’s facebook status but the other day Ashton walked in on him and said, “Dad, you’re almost too big for that toilet.”

Before winter started all over again, we had some flowers popping up in the front yard. This is what you get when you have sweet little boys around (my sister Jessi – who has four boys- often finds cute little surprises like this, also). Maybe little girls do this, too. We’ll see.

Ashton loves helping Emmy. He’s helping her take off her snow clothes right here.

Lately Ashton’s favorite thing is PlayDoh. Today I tried something new. I rolled out little pieces and asked if he could spell his name. I gave him the correctly-sized pieces to work with and I asked what the first letter in his name was. He made an “A”, then I asked what the next letter was, etc. etc. He totally spelled his name!!!

I did help him figure out the very last piece on the “N”, but he did the rest!!! I was pretty impressed.

We haven’t developed pictures since we got our first digital camera in 2004. But I just had to have this one developed so I could look at it all the time. Look at that sweet little face!

As I lean on the counter and read email on my laptop, this is what I see next to me. Emmy gets a chair, pushes it across the kitchen, climbs up and studies the computer screen, just like Mommy.

Emmy loves her baby. She holds her and bounces her while saying “Shh, shh, shhhhh.” She’ll feed the baby a bottle and give the baby a “weeee!” (a ride in Emmy’s language)

Emmy is usually a good girl, but she can still be quite a little snot sometimes. She loves to throw things and she has quite an arm. (Maybe she’ll be The Quarterback Princess her mom always dreamed of being) Yesterday she got in trouble for grabbing Ashton’s hot chocolate and THROWING it. Here she is in time out. She was sooo naughty and was crying and crying in the corner but still so cute.

By the way, I have to do her hair THREE times a day and it usually ends up looking like this before bedtime.